Community Watchdog

Jennifer Dorane, with 10-month-old daughter Kimberly, wants the Town of Oyster Bay's sanitation trucks to pick up trash later in the day so the noise doesn't wake her children.
Newsday photo by Viorel Florescu

I understand there is a Town of Oyster Bay ordinance that does not allow commercial vehicles to deliver or work in residential neighborhoods before 8 a.m. I would like to know if the public works department is exempt from this law. Their garbage and recycling trucks wake up my three young children as early as 6:30 a.m. This is too early and would like to request a later start for these very hard workers.
- Jennifer Dorane, Bethpage

We’ve received a handful of sanitation-related noise complaints from Nassau County residents in recent months.

But sanitation officials maintain that early hours are necessary to reach the more than 71,000 households and 2,000 businesses in the Town of Oyster Bay alone. That leaves time to unload at transfer stations where waste is held temporarily.

According to the Long Island Sanitation Officials Association (LISOA), most workers start their shifts at 6 a.m. and, depending on how fast they work, they can reach transfer stations between 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Safety is also a factor. By starting early they avoid operating dangerous equipment in late-afternoon traffic or twilight hours, especially in winter months, LISOA’s former president Richard T. Ronan said.

Regarding the town’s noise ordinance, officials say sanitation workers get a pass for health reasons.

Spokeswoman Marta Kane said, “The town’s noise ordinance is aimed at reducing unnecessary noise disruptions made as a result of workers making deliveries, whereas the town’s sanitation pickup is a public safety and health necessity.”

--Michael R. Ebert

Alan Penner complained about missing garbage cans which were replaced before this picture was taken.
Newsday photo by Thomas A. Ferrara

For the last six months, three garbage cans on Long Beach Road and Daly Boulevard in Oceanside have been missing. I reported the cans, two of which are located at bus stops by Valley Townhouse condominiums, to the sanitation department in October. Months later, the cans still have yet to be replaced, despite the fact that dog and human refuse is piling up.
- Alan Penner, Oceanside

Within 48 hours of calling the Town of Hempstead, the garbage cans were replaced. But officials at Sanitation District #7 removed them a few days later because someone kicked in the side of the stone veneer cannisters causing a “dangerously sharp” protrusion, officials said.

“Apparently, someone doesn’t like the cans being there,” said Charles Scarlata, supervisor of Sanitation District #7, which handles refuse and recycling collection in Oceanside.
In early May, we called again and the cans were replaced the same day.

In Hempstead, refuse collection and recycling is handled by special sanitation districts, which have their own separately-elected boards of commissioners, said town spokesman Michael Deery. Hempstead has five garbage districts employing about 500 people.

Oceanside residents with questions or concerns about refuse or recycling should contact Sanitation District #7 at 516-766-8700.